Name: Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: ½ lb good rich cheese; 1 oz butter; 1 tablespoon cream; ½ teaspoon mustard; ½ teaspoon anchovy essence (optional); thinly cut bread; butter for spreading; crisp salad for serving

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, combine the cheese, butter, cream, mustard, and anchovy essence until well mixed.
Spread the mixture on slices of thinly cut bread that have been buttered.
Top with another slice of buttered bread and trim the edges neatly.

Serve

Arrange the sandwiches in a circle on a plate and place crisp salad in the center.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cheese: Provides the main flavour and, when softened with butter and cream, a spreadable filling.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the cheese mixture spread smoothly and softly.
Cream: Loosens the cheese mixture so it blends into a smooth, spreadable texture.
Mustard: Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, cream, anchovy, bread):

Potatofits better
Onionfits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, cream, anchovy, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.